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Tuesday, 7 August 2012

(Much of the detail of the history of the Asturian miners is taken from Andy Durgan's piece in Socialist Worker)

For somebody of my
generation, writing, especially in Wales, about a miners’ strike has a certain
shiver to it. Certain associations. Certain memories. I am old enough to
remember the successful British miners’ strike of 1972, with its flying
pickets, mass picketing and in particular the battle of Saltley gates, (40 yrs
ago this yr)in which the engineering
workers of Birmingham joined with miners to close down the coke depot and win
the strike. And of course, there was the 1974 strike, which toppled the
government of Tory PM Edward Heath.

But I also remember the
heroic battles of 1984-85, in which miners battled the Thatcher government but
could not get the solidarity from other workers (indeed, from all miners) that
they needed to win.

What much of the left did
not fully understand then was the extent to which Thatcher’s attacks were a
response to the re-onset of economic crisis in the 1970s and were the start of
the process of establishing an unregulated, globalised free market economy,
preferably with minimal, ineffective trade unions – what we now call neoliberalism. This was an
attempt to overcome the fall in profits which had reasserted itself after the
postwar boom of the 50s and 60s . It was
a process which now lies in ruins in the collapse of the banking & economic
crisis, but zombie-like, continues to destroy workers’ lives. And it is a
process which is now being resisted by the miners of Asturia.

Before I look at the
Asturian miners and their history, I want to say one thing: traditions and
history have to be built. There is
nothing ready-made about traditions of militancy. I say this because it is
possible, especially when looking at the history of the Asturian miners, to
stand in awe of them. The miners of South Wales had a similar reputation. It is
worth reminding ourselves that in the late 19th century Welsh miners
were regarded as the most backward in Britain from the standpoint of class
consciousness and labour organisation. For two decades they had no effective coalfield
trade union presence. The shift towards militancy came in the first decade of
the 20th century. There is nothing automatic about the development
of political consciousness. This has to be built by socialists in the process
of struggle and resistance.

Having said that, the
Asturian miners’ history of struggle and resistance are pretty good. There is a
tradition in these communities not only of industrial militancy but of
guerrilla activism, partially originating from the struggle against Franco. People
may have seen on YouTube the battles with the police which became a daily
occurrence for the Asturian strikers this year, with a home-made
rocket-launcher used to fire projectiles at the police lines. Many miners are
trained in the use of explosives. In the strike of 1934 local unions gathered
small arms and launched attacks on the barracks, seizing many of them.

Let’s look at the strike
of 1934. By 1934, the Spanish
workers’ movement was acutely aware of the threat of fascism. They saw what was
happening elsewhere in Europe. It was widely believed
that the main right wing party, the Catholic CEDA (Confederation of Rightist
Groups), would try to introduce an authoritarian regime through parliament.
This had happened in Austria and Germany.When the CEDA entered the
government in early October 1934 a revolutionary general strike was called.
This became a full-blown insurrection in Asturias.

The miners were at the
centre of this movement. This was due to their traditions of struggle, a crisis
in the mining industry and the unity of workers’ organisations in the Workers’
Alliances. With other workers, the miners took over the region. They organised
militias, transport, the distribution of food and revolutionary justice.

A revolutionary committee
based on delegates from the unions and workers’ parties declared that the
region was now a Socialist Republic.

For two weeks the miners
held out against the army in the mountain valleys and the provincial capital
Oviedo. Lightly armed, their main weapon was dynamite thrown or shot from
catapults.

The miners were finally
defeated by overwhelming force. The failure of the strike meant they were
isolated across Spain. They faced appalling repression.

The Army of Africa, under
the command of future dictator Francisco Franco, wreaked a terrible revenge,
especially in the pit villages.

Over two thousand workers
were murdered, many more imprisoned and tortured. Miners’ wives were beaten and
raped. But far from being cowed, the experience of the Asturian Commune
inspired workers throughout Spain.

With the military coup in
July 1936 the slogan of the Asturian miners echoed through the streets as
workers resisted: ¡U.H.P! (Unite Proletarian Brothers!). The Civil War would
rage on for another three years.

In Asturias the miners
once more were at the forefront of this struggle. Badly armed, the Asturian
working class held out for 15 months before being overwhelmed by the fascist
forces in October 1937.

Once more the mining
valleys flowed with blood. But even then the miners did not stop fighting—many
fled into the mountains and guerrilla warfare raged well into the 1940s.

After Franco’s victory
all trade unions and workers’ organisations were banned. The repression
unleashed during the war continued until the late 1940s.

Working class activists
were executed, imprisoned and sent to labour camps. The new regime aimed to
eliminate all vestiges of a militant workers’ movement.

By the late 1950s a new
generation of workers had entered the factories and the mines. Mining in
Asturias had reached its peak with 52,000 miners by 1958, compared with barely
4,000 today.

Coal production would
soon help fuel Spain’s economic boom after the Stabilisation Plan of 1959
opened the door to foreign investors and tourism.

Over the next 14 years
Spain underwent unprecedented growth and was transformed both economically and
socially.

Economic development
meant that workers flooded into the cities and industries. A new working class
emerged relatively unscathed by the horrors of the Civil War.

Throughout the 1960s
there would be repeated clashes and strikes as this new working class strove to
both improve its conditions and, increasingly, bring about democracy.

The Asturian miners were
at the centre of this struggle. In 1962 they carried out one of the most
dramatic strikes during the dictatorship.

The strike started on 7
April 1962, at the Nicolasa mine in protest at the sacking of seven miners. It
soon spread to involve the rest of the mines. Demands to end a state-imposed
wage freeze were also added to the strikers’ demands.

The regime responded with
mass arrests, beatings and torture. Strikers were sent forcibly to live
hundreds of miles away.

Solidarity was important
in sustaining what was an illegal strike. Shopkeepers and small famers provided
food. In the neighbouring Basque Country fishermen worked extra hours so they
could provide the strikers with fish.

The miners’ struggle
proved a spark for other workers for a general protest against the wage freeze.
Over the coming weeks this involved 500,000 workers throughout Spain.

The Spanish government
declared a state of siege on 4 May. Yet the miners held out. On 24 May the
government agreed to the strikers’ demands. On 5 and 6 June the strikes ended
with wage increases being granted across industry and agriculture.

The miners’ victory was
the first mass workers’ movement to successfully take on Franco’s regime. The
strike saw the birth of workers’ commissions elected directly by the workers
which bypassed the state-run “unions”.

Such commissions became
commonplace. They formed the basis of a new democratic trade union movement
that went on to play a central role in the struggle against the dictatorship.

The 1962 strike was
difficult to organise at first, because of the dictator’s formidable reputation
as a repressor of all forms of protest.

When the Asturian miners
began their strikes in April, Franco refused to recognise them. He claimed they
were illegal.

The key to victory was
how the dispute spread. Miners in the Nicolasa mine declared a strike on 7
April. Miners from Baltasara struck the next day. Then a strike was declared in
Polio and a week later the whole Caudal Valley in Asturias was on strike.

On 16 April the strike
spread to Turon and then to the Nalon Valley. At this point 60,000 workers were
striking. The slogan the strikers chanted was, “General salary raises and
solidarity with our comrades”.

Franco responded with
brutal repression including detentions and beatings of workers and women. In
Franco’s Spain, striking was equal to military rebellion and was punished
harshly.

Yet strikers were able to
organise effectively. The strike gripped 24 provinces for more than eight
weeks.

The Spanish democratic
movement stemmed partially from the Asturian mining strikes. The strike wave
had given the movement strength, momentum and hope that fascism in Spain could
be beaten.

So, to quickly come up to the present day. I can do no better than to quote from Richard Seymour's LENIN'S TOMB blog:

"Spain is one
of the "peripheral" economies of the eurozone, exposed to high levels
of debt and volatility. Its banks, having expanded during the construction and
property booms, are now dangerously weak. Like Greece, Italy and Ireland, it
has been subject to waves of austerity, ostensibly to reduce the deficit. €27bn
cuts are already planned this year. These cuts, and the conditions they have
exacerbated, have already produced a mass insurgency, with the indignados of
Puerta del Sol drawing
inspiration from Tahrir.

However, the
latest spending squeeze, which includes 63% cuts to coal subsidies resulting in
thousands of job losses, has provoked furious and desperate resistance by the
miners of Asturias. The cutback came just as the government spent billions
rescuing the banks. So, toward the end of May, approximately 8,000 miners went
on strike, indefinitely. The main square of the Asturian
capital, Oveido, was occupied by workers using the same tactic as the
indignados.

This is not
to say that the miners are simply following the indignados. As one of their
most widely seen banners put it: "No Estamos Indignados, Estamos Hasta Los
Cojones" ("We Are Not Indignant, We Are Pissed Off To Our
Balls").

The
conservative government is anxious not to be seen to capitulate, or even
negotiate. Aside from anything else, its political credibility with European
lenders partially derives from its ability to contain domestic revolt. This is
a dynamic being repeated across the EU, and it raises the stakes considerably
in such struggles. Governments are bunkering down, and preparing for protracted
battles, banking on the likelihood that union leaderships are not equal to such
prolonged warfare. This hasn't worked in Asturias despite the key unions being
allied to the Socialists, who are in favour of austerity.

The
government's position is weak. Its crisis already compounded by the chaos in
Spanish banks, it looks feeble after returning from EU negotiations with a
bailout package which it claimed had "no strings attached", only for
Germany to repudiate this claim. The reality is that the bailout of Spanish
banks is making another sovereign debt crisis more likely – in an economy five
times the size of Greece. As such, the battle with the miners is being
conducted on shaky ground, and could easily fall apart. This is another factor
that is common across Europe – the weakness and uncertainty of our rulers,
which is exposed at the first sign of a real challenge."

The strategy
of pushing through as many cuts as possible, to hit trade union organization
and where possible to restructure the public sector and the ‘social wage’ – the
welfare states which were set up in so many countries after World War Two as a
buttress against revolution – is being carried through by governments across
Europe. We in the UK are caught up in this struggle – the ‘struggle of our
lives’ as it has been called more than once, against a weak, unpopular and
bungling government, whose Chancellor, as daily more bad economic news arrives,
is especially vulnerable.

In Spain Opposition to attacks on jobs and conditions is growing. Public sector
unions have called on others to join them for a two-day general strike in
September. Government workers marched
through the Spanish capital Madrid on Monday of this week while striking against
the cuts.

Opposition to attacks on
jobs and conditions in Spain is growing. Public sector unions have called on
others to join them for a two-day general strike in September.

The Spanish economy has
contracted by one percent in the past year, new figures revealed on Monday.

Workers, unemployed
people and students have been organising demonstrations, road blocks and
sit-ins almost daily. The government announced over £50 billion in cuts last
month.

A
coordinated eurozone bailout of Spain’s economy looks increasingly likely. But
there is also deep confusion about when and how this could happen.

Spain’s borrowing rate
started to drop on Monday of this week as a bailout began to look more
probable. But the problem for Europe’s ruling classes is that the bailouts
aren’t working.

Billions have been pumped
into the Greek economy, coupled with ferocious austerity measures. Yet things
have only got worse. In these desperate attempts to save their system, the
politicians and the bosses have no ideas beyond “make the poor pay”. As the
crisis deepens, and as governments seem increasingly unable to control their
events, resistance will grow.

Our main focus in the UK
is to build our own resistance, focusing in particular on the TUC demo on 20
Oct, and to turn it into the sort of ‘Day of Rage’ that the TUC leadership
would run a mile from. We need to be arguing to use the demo to launch a
programme of strike action: bear in mind that in early November we are likely
to see mass strikes by teachers, civil service workers and others. We need to
be arguing to turn this into a general public sector strike. Bear in mind also
that on Wednesday 21 November a national student demo is planned.

We need to use the
Asturian miners’ strike as an example of how to resist, how to build in a way
that gives the rank & file some power, how to try to create the spark that
will detonate a wider explosion and spread resistance in the only way that can win.